Cost-Effective Mach-Zehnder Interferometer Liquid Refractive Index Sensor Based on Conventional Polymer Strip Waveguide

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate a cost-effective liquid refractive index (RI) sensor in polymer materials by employing a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) formed with the conventional strip waveguide. The proposed sensor can attain high sensitivity by choosing a suitable reference arm length to reduce optical path difference (OPD) between the two arms of the employed MZI. Our fabricated devices, which have the same sensing arm length of 7900 µm but different reference arm lengths of 7900.0, 7942.5, 7950.9, 7962.2, and 7969.5 µm, respectively, exhibit the maximum RI sensitivities of 33662.8 nm/RIU, and almost the same detection range (DR) of 0.0041 0.0002 RIU.

Compact and Highly Sensitive Refractive Index Sensor Based on Embedded Double-Ring Resonator Using Vernier Effect

“…Considering that the loss of the SR is larger than that of the RR, and the results of previous work [5], the power splitting ratio in YJ 2 is designed to be ∼2:1 in this work to make more light power into the SR to balance the loss, that is,…”

“…most attractive device configurations due to its small size and strong light-analyte interaction achieved by the resonance of light wave in ring waveguide, making it the best choice for building compact and high-sensitivity sensors [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21].…”

“…In this paper, we propose and demonstrate experimentally a compact and highly sensitive liquid RI sensor by employing an embedded double-ring resonator in polymer waveguide to achieve Vernier effect. Polymer is one of the most promising materials platforms for the implementation of a cost-effective RI sensor because of the availability of a wide range of polymer material with controllable RI as well as simple waveguide fabrication process [5], [15], [33]. Unlike these cascaded double-ring sensors, our proposed embedded double-ring sensor (EDRS) features that the sensing ring (SR) is embedded on the reference ring (RR), which makes the sensor more compact while achieving high sensitivity.…”

Design of Suspended Slot Racetrack Microring Refractive Index Sensor Based on Polymer Nanocomposite

“…They can also be applied in high-temperature environments and have the capability to be free of electromagnetic interference, which complements the vulnerability to electromagnetic interference and long sensing time of traditional electrical sensors [4,5]. Refractive index sensors are a significant type of liquid optical waveguide sensors that allow for highly sensitive detection and measurement of refractive index changes in the surrounding medium [6]. Optical liquid sensors convert the change in refractive index of an analyte into an optical signal via the interaction between light and the analyte, which achieves sensitive, real-time detection of the analyte [7].…”

Highly Sensitive Liquid M-Z Waveguide Sensor Based on Polymer Suspended Slot Waveguide Structure

“…In the field of polymer sensing, strip waveguides and slot waveguides on substrates are widely employed. In 2020, Xiao Xia Ma et al proposed and demonstrated a cost-effective liquid refractive index (RI) sensor in polymer materials by employing a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) formed with the strip waveguide [ 19 ]. Kaixin Chen et al proposed a polymer horizontal slot waveguide as a light-analyte interactive region to implement a low-cost and highly sensitive liquid refractive index sensor [ 20 ].…”